Together with the enormous Dynamo Open Air festival, the almostannual "Aardschokdag" (translates to "Earthquake Day") is aconcert experience the whole Dutch metal fraternity looks forwardto. And most rightly so, for the Aardschokdag so far had alreadyfeatured bands the likes of Metallica, Venom, Megadeth, ViciousRumours, Queensryche, House of Lords, Flotsam & Jetsam, Fear ofGod, Sepultura and Obituary. This year's Aardschokdag was possibly the softest ever. ChannelZero sounded a bit like Pantera and was therefore OK, but most ofthe bands on the bill consisted of nothing more than a load ofcommercial crap. As a matter of fact if it hadn't been for DreamTheater I wouldn't have gone. No matter how excellent ParadiseLost are, I wouldn't have spent 50 Dutch guilders on an entireconcert ticket just to hear them playing for 45 minutes. As itwas, however, I had both Paradise Lost and Dream Theater to see -the latter of which I had missed when they played at Utrecht'sVredenburg venue earlier this year because the show had alreadybeen sold out way before I found out about it. Channel Zero, as I said, was quite OK - a band from Belgium thatsounds a lot like Pantera. Worth while listening to. I arrivedbarely in time to hear the last few songs, however. Damn the Machine was the band of ex-Megadeth member ChrisPoland. I had hoped perhaps for something like Rage Against theMachine - or some other kind of radical "we hate the system"stuff, but ultimately I didn't find the music particularlymemorable. If it hadn't been for Chris I suspect they would neverhave appeared here. Freak of Nature I had already hated at Dynamo Open Air. Thistotally overhyped band basically got the female part of thespectators going (suddenly young girls - and I do mean young -popped up as if from cracks in the floor). I can't identify withthem, their music is awfully poppy and the guys just look toohandsome (and know it). There was a Metal Market in the Rijnhal as well. I visited itfor most of the earlier part of the day, browsing through bootlegCDs, cheap discounts and second-hand offerings. I came back fromthat somewhere during Riverdogs. Although I didn't like theRiverdogs much either, at least they seemed to believe inthemselves. Instead of an appealing image you got some musicianswho worked hard to do their thing. They are the only ones thatdon't deserve my lack of appreciation. Well, next was Paradise Lost. I had in the mean time procured myusual spot right up front against the fence. Grated steel againstmy front, hundreds of smelly headbangers against my back. I wasready for it. Probably the only band of the day to causesomething like an earthquake. Divers came in twos and threes(layers, that is) as "Embers Fire" was released at reasonable butnot quite sufficiently earblasting volume. Singer Nick Holmesproudly proclaimed that they were the "only true fucking heavymetal band" on the bill. It seemed they weren't satisfied withthe load of posers and lovers of commerciality before and afterthem, but they only used the occasion to kick ass thoroughly."Remembrance" followed, the second song off their latest CD"Icon", and the rest of the gig consisted of an excellent mixtureof old and new material - "Gothic", "Mortals Watch the Day","Joys of the Emptiness", "Shallow Seasons", "Eternal", "Your Handin Mine", "Widow", "As I Die" (one of their very best), "TrueBelief" (the single release) and "Pity the Sadness". If only allbands on the bill could have been like this! Next was Warrior Soul. Apart from a few OK riffs, what itbasically came down to was an hour of trash (not thrash). I wasdefinitely not giving up my spot right up front. I would have tosuffer through Warrior Soul so that I'd still be where I wantedto be when the headliner, Dream Theater, was going to kick off.Warrior Soul? Well, they must be the guys with the worst dresssense in the known multiverse. Golden trousers, lots of red andgreen, I don't know. Terrible. What was more terrible is thattheir clothes left more of an impression on me than their music.Some people really like them, but they're just not me kind ofband. Last, but most certainly not least (and after a bit of a longbreak) Dream Theater started off for what would be an hour and ahalf of technically and musically outstanding music. They kicked off with "Metropolis - Part I", certainly their mostcomplex and brilliant song to date. I have seen brilliantguitarists aplenty, and I've seen a brilliant guitarist andbassist once (Satriani and Hamm), but this time what I saw was afirst class John Petrucci (guitar), a most excellent John Myung(bass), a human rhythm machine (Portnoy), a great singer (LaBrie)and a keyboard player (Moore) that was excellent but faded awaysomewhat compared to the other members. Dream Theater must be themost technically and musically gifted bunch of people ever to bein one band on a permanent basis. I was glad the divers keptquiet. Dream Theater needed every bit of attention in order toget the ultimate enjoyment. These guys are just absolutelyamazing. They played all of their insanely amazing "Images andWords" album, as well as various songs off their debut (the tracklist mentions them as "Ytse Jam", "Puppies" and "Eve", but Ihaven't got that album so I don't know the full song titles) aswell as a new song by the name of "To Live Forever". Dream Theater is no doubt one of the best bands currently inexistence. Rush are excellent, and so are Queensrÿche, but DreamTheater is just so much better. When I went back home, I knew it had been a day and 50 Dutchguilders well spent. But surely next time I would try harder tobe on time to see Dream Theater play on their own tour.

Surely a band must lose its last shred of credibility if themost successful line-up reunites twice. Some years ago Ian Gillanhad been kicked out of the reunion Mk.II to be replaced by JoeLynn Turner and make the positively mediocre "Slaves andMasters". However, he could come back to do their latest "TheBattle Rages On" - an album that isn't exactly mediocre but notquite up to their old standard. As a matter of fact at severalinstances it sounded as if the musicians (or at least Gillan andBlackmore) had never been in the same studio at the same time. Anyway, this re-reunited Mk.II Deep Purple is what the audiencegot to see once the totally unknown local support act departedfrom the stage and it had been cleaned up and rearranged a bit. If only I had been born, say, 15 years earlier. I would haveseen Deep Purple in their prime, in 1972, around the release of"Machinehead". Perhaps Jimi Hendrix too, now I come to think ofit. The Deep Purple I saw, even though the members were the same(OK, a bit older and saggier), was nothing more but a shadow ofits former self. For starters I haven't heard one Blackmore live solo that wasn'tsloppy, not since after his Rainbow days. He also playsneedlessly loud, using some sort of preamp (or Roland guitarsyntyh, whatever) attached to his guitar that he sometimes cranksup ruthlessly to wipe Gillan's vocals clean off the stage. Gillan's voice was much better than I had feared, even though hedidn't quite get through all the tough bits in "Child in Time".Good thing the audience was more than willing to help out. If it hadn't been for the legendary status and impressive pastthat Deep Purple carry on their shoulders, it might actually havebeen quite a bad concert, or at least a mediocre one. But beforeme stood the grandfathers of hard rock, toiling. Well, theyweren't exactly toiling actually. Not that much. Apart from the fact that the audience was exceedingly quiet andextremely irritating (people raised a lot of eyebrow when theysaw me bang my head) I still had quite a good time. The lightshowwas good, and all golden oldies were played - "Highway Star","Black Night" "Space Truckin'", "Hush", "Lazy", "Speed King","Smoke on the Water" and even "Anyone's Daughter", as well assome newer stuff such as "Knocking at Your Back Door", "PerfectStrangers", "The Battle Rages On", "Talk About Love" and "Anya".No long solos, no showcasing. They just played the songs,sometimes even medley-esque short versions, and that was it. I am confident Blackmore can do it still, but he appears not towant to. Gillan should be banned from doing it but does anyway.Lord, zealously sweating and quite flabby, still does all histricks faithfully, including the obligatory "Für Elise" and a bitof boogie woogie. Only Paice and Glover were still quiteidentical with the pictures I recalled from the old albums. In the mean time Deep Purple have split up again. Or, actually,Ritchie Blackmore has left them. Joe Satriani was hired to standin to wrap up the Japanese leg of the tour (now that's onebootleg recording I'd surely like to have!). I really doubtwhether Deep Purple will be any good with a second Tommy Bolin.Only Yngwie Malmsteen might perhaps fit in, but I doubt the clashof the egos would make this possible. Blackmore is said to havecontacting Joe Lynn Turner to reform Rainbow (why not Dio?). The music business is certainly strange. At least I am somewhat happy I saw Deep Purple in their classicline-up. Now they can - and should - wither away in peace.

I have no car. I am quite poor. So I welcomed the fact that MyDying Bride - my favourite avant garde metal band - did anafternoon concert at 's Hertogenbosch. Evening concerts usuallymake it impossible to get back home by train unless they're inRotterdam or Amsterdam. I was lucky this time. I was in time, hadmy camera with me, and got to stand right up front from thebeginning. The beginning was G.G.F.H. That's an acronym for Global GenocideForget Heaven. It's what you get if you put together Napalm Deathand regular metal, take away the drummer and replace it by aheavy duty drum computer that is specialised at playing a fairbit of house. All in all I can safely say I didn't particularlylike it, and that's an understatement I use because thePeaceville guys may just read this. Basically it was three TVscreens and a singer that walked to and fro. The TV screensshowed every bit of gore and filth possible to put together.People blowing their brains out, sect members eating shit fallingout of a live cow's ass, documentary material shot at autopsies,that kind of thing. Had me nauseated for a while. After what I guess must have been something like 30 or 45minutes, the stage was cleared and the smoke machines ceasedworking. A rumour went round that what we had seen wasn't G.G.F.H. Itwasn't. Brian J. Walls was in hospital with acute appendicites,and singer Ghost had been deported back to the U.S. on accountsof violiting some pornography act. We had seen G.G.F.H. roadieLoz Danzig. Didn't make much of a difference. The song I knewfrom a Peaceville sampler sounded the same, and the other stuff Ididn't know nor like very much. Anyway, up next was the band I had come for, avant garde metalpioneers My Dying Bride. They played a lot from their latest album, "Turn Loose theSwans". At the time I hadn't listened to that album much so Ifound much of the songs they played a tad inaccessible. I am sureI would have liked the gig even more if the new songs had alreadygrown on me. They hadn't. My fault. They started with "The Songless Bird", followed by "The Snow inmy Hand" and "The Crown of Sympathy". Excellent songs, but itwould have been so much better if I had already known thembetter. As I said, my mistake. The first song that found meflipping out properly was "The Thrash of Naked Limbs", not longafter which they did their first ever song, "Symphonaire Infernuset Spera Empyrium". Unfortunately it changed into "Turn Loose theSwans" halfway - I would really have liked hearing the wholesong, especially because the last half contains some really goodriffs to bang your head on. The concert got a lot slower whenthey did "Sear Me MCMXCIII". For all I care they could haveskipped that. Adrenalin surges settled quietly while everybodywaited until the song would be over. "Erotic Nightmares" wasnext, quite a contrast, following by "Your River". They came backfor an encore, "The Forever People". Maybe I am getting spoiled too much. I had expected more,certainly some other songs, and definitely the original "Sear Me"instead of the rehash. If I saw them again I think I would enjoythem more, what with my having listened to "Turn Loose the Swans"more adequately now. Well, I did get a a pick from Andy, one oftheir guitarists. My Dying Bride, by the way, had also had problems during thetour. Their van had been broken into with Martin's violinsgetting stolen, and two other occasions the van crashed. It seemsbad luck was with them all the time, but all in all they didn'tmiss any dates. And that's what matters most to us mortals.

Every year the three major Dutch Student Heavy MetalAppreciation Societies (E.S.H.F.B., T.S.H.V. Scarabee andV.I.R.U.S.) organise a so-called Festacle. These usually takeplace late winter or early spring, each society taking turns inorganising the venue in their home town. This time Scarabee gotthe honours, causing the event to take place at the TilburgBatcave. A Festacle consists of an afternoon of member-onlygames, after which the evening becomes sortof a free-for-all orgyof heavy metal mayhem. I was part of the organisation on behalf of V.I.R.U.S. so Imissed most of the first band, Seven's Even. What I heard from myposition at the door where I had the first shift I didn't heartoo much that I liked. I saw the last ten minutes which were somesort of jam. I didn't like that either, although it could be seenthat they weren't too bad technically. Seven's Even is sometimesdescribed as "an alternative version of Kong, with vocals". Well,I didn't really see any similarity. And, as I said, I didn't likeit too much. "You were part of the organisation," I now hear you ask, "whywas it selected?" Well, the band was dead-cheap and they werefrom Tilburg so they didn't need travel expenses. Many visitorsliked them a lot anyway so I guess they weren't a bad selectionat all. Second was Inquisitor. This is a four-piece thrash band fromHarderwijk, Netherlands. Their lyrics question religion and thatkind of thing, and their music is very fast - like early NapalmDeath often - yet quite melodious with a singer unlike any other.There was a lot of audience response, most notably to their "Cryof the Christians", which was also the second song of theirencore. There was a reasonable mosh up front, of which I mightmodestly claim to have been an active part. The first bruiseswere sustained, and Inquisitor's general speed rapidly assuredknackered neck tendons. They played for an hour which to somepeople was a bit repetitive. But if you're caught in a mosh youdon't notice that kind of thing. People flipped out aplenty, andI think the band enjoyed it too. When they finished I went to gettheir second demo, "Your Pain Will be Exquisite" (reviewedelsewhere). Last, but certainly not least, was Excision. This band hasalready gained critical acclaim in the Heavy Metal press onaccount of their excellent demo "The Drowning Tear" (reviewedelsewhere in this issue). Not as fast as Inquisitor and with asinger more regular to the genre, Excision gathered a much largermosh pit. After having spent the first fifteen minutes at thedoor for a second mini-shift, I joined the throbbing and jumpingcollection of near-humans in the front with renewed zeal. I hadrefueled and was ready to kick some serious ass. Excision was amost proper headliner for this year's Festacle. Apart from thefact that they had made certain a large number of payingspectators which in the end made sure we got out all the moneythat was put in, the audience was most responsive. Looking fromthe stage there were about a hundred wildly banging heads, withabout two dozen more fanatic people moshing in the front as ifhaunted by some utterly evil being from the most nasty ofNetherhells. At midnight Excision disappeared off the stage, during which Igot both the drummer's sticks. It was only the start of twofurther hours of, for lack of a better word, a metal disco. Itmight just have been the best of the three annual Festacles yet -I had to spend the better part of a week nursing bruises andmoving my neck very carefully indeed. My back even ached. I musthave appeared like a near-invalid during that time.

Sad Whisperings, Anathema & My Dying Bride

Noorderligt, Tilburg, Netherlands, February 19th 1994.

Noorderligt is a sortof famous concert venue in the South of theNetherlands, just about as popular as the legendary Dynamo Club.This year it's 10 years ago that it got built, something that wascelebrated by many concerts and other activities, among which wasthis special one-off occurrence of Peaceville recording artistsAnathema and My Dying Bride supported by the Dutch band SadWhisperings. Even though I had seen both of the major bandswithin the last half year or so, I decided to grasp this occasionwith both hands. Andy of Peaceville even got me on the guestlist, so that I could get in for free and could take photographsas much as I wanted (in the end something went wrong with theguest list but I got in anyway). Before the gig started I went backstage with Darren (Anathemavocalist) and interviewed them as well as My Dying Bride. By thetime I got back, Sad Whisperings has already finished up, justabout. I got to see about five minutes, which left a verypositive impression. I think I might one day check out their CD,"Sensitive to Autumn". At well after 9 o'clock, Anathema got on stage. No incense thistime, but the same set they had played at Dynamo about half ayear ago. The atmosphere was less intimate this time so Icouldn't get into the sad mood as proverbly as on that previousoccasion. The audience was a lot more responsive this time, as amatter of fact I had genuine trouble keeping both my camera andmyself safe from the stage divers and other moshers from myposition right in front. Anathema had played for virtuallyexactly one hour when they disappeared off stage after theirencore, a repetition of their most excellent "Lovelorn Rhapsody".There were about twenty enthusiastically headbanging people onstage by that time, who all hurled themselves back into thegeneral masses (and/or onto the concrete floor) as the last notesfaded away. It had been awesome, but I had genuine reason to feeluncomfortable about my camera and stuff if the audience responseto My Dying Bride was going to be anything similar - or, worse,worse! As it was, however, it didn't get a lot worse when My DyingBride took the stage. They played the same set as at Willem IIlast year, with an added "I Am the Bloody Earth" (excellent songreleased on EP about a month before) and "Erotic Literature"omitted due to the drummer having hurt himself somewhere duringthe concert ("Erotic Literature" is one of their fast songs).Yes, they also played "Sear Me 1993" again, which got tremendousapplause in the end even though most people were just aboutasleep by then. Why not the original "Sear Me"? During the middle of the last song and encore, "The ForeverPeople", vocalist Aaron suggested people get on the stage know orforever be silent forever. His call was heeded by many. Abouthalf a minute later the whole stage was a crawling mass of humanflesh, a miracle that the band could actually still play at all.It was about a quarter to midnight then, and I had spent most ofthe concert alternately flipping out utterly and moving aroundthe hall and to strategic spots at the sides of the stage to makesome pretty excellent pictures. After the whole thing had ended I joined the fray to hunt forsouvenirs. A guitar pick was quickly obtained, but I was too lateto get any of the two drum sticks. A few minutes later I got backstage again, though, and procured a drum stick that had beendropped earlier during the gig. The whole concert experience, with added memorabilia (My DyingBride drum stick and a pick of Calvin, their other guitarist) andthe fact that I had met the guys and interviewed them, made thisone of the best days in my recent life. I think I could reallylike being a rock journalist. If you're interested in reading the interviews, by the way,please refer to the appropriate section of ST NEWS.

As soon as I knew Paradise Lost were playing Tivoli I went toarrange the biggest joint concert visiting experience ever set upby V.I.R.U.S. (the Society of Intensely Rocking UtrechtStudents). In the end a massive 62 people - members and friendsof members - joined. I had arranged 6% of all people visiting,quite a feat if I may be so dishumble (?!) as to say so myself. After the interview (a very interesting one, I think, which iscovered in full elsewhere in ST NEWS) I got to the bar where wetend to hang out and play darts on Friday nights. I still had tosell the last few tickets to people who had ordered but hadn'tfetched their tickets yet. Nick Holmes and Aaron Aedy of ParadiseLost knew that this bar sold Guiness - I had mentioned it duringthe interview - so they also popped up early in the evening, andAaron even got the chance to play pinball with a few of ourmembers. Anyway, at 20:20 we went to Tivoli concert hall. Half an hourlater we were inside. Erwin (the dude that had made photos at theinterview that afternoon, also a member) and me had talked theguys at Tivoli into giving us a photo pass each, allowing us A)To sell our tickets at ludicrous prices to Germans who had foundthe concert sold out, and B) To get into the utterly comfortablepress pit right before the stage where we could freak out and, ofcourse, make a few photos as long as the first three songs took. First up were the support act, of course, Crowbar. Beavis andButthead generally refer to them as cool fat dudes, and I guessthey are. I am not all too sure whether they are cool, but one ofthem is fat and another is a sortof humongonoidish fatso. Theirmusic had the aggressive style of Pantera but (another summarycoming up) A) The overall volume was really too much to be anygood, B) The vocals were all the same, and C) Stage presentationwas just like the vocals (i.e. all the same). Not my kind ofband. I only spent one song in the press pit, and took two orthree pictures for the hell of it. At 20:35 Paradise Lost's intro started. It was different fromtheir usual one (that was "Desolate" off "Gothic"). I ran to thephoto pit entrance and located myself at a strategic spot."Embers Fire" kicked off, spotlights went on, the band becamevisible. Nick had kept his word. He was wearing a "VIRUS" T-shirt. Erwin's camera klicked like mad, mine too. I banged myhead off, evaded divers that launched themselves at the photopit. For a moment when I heard the deafening audience response toNick coming on and starting to sing, I couldn't interpret it inany other way rather than that they were applauding for the"VIRUS" T-shirt. I had a bit of a lump in my throat, and I laterheard of ex-chairman and founder of "VIRUS" that he had had ittoo. It's like a milestone for "VIRUS". But let's get back to the concert. I had never been this closeto this big a band. The whole entourage, the whole afternoonmeeting the band, and now this. Beyond excellence it was, beyondfucking excellence. Three songs allowed in the photo pit. Theywere the best three songs I had ever heard and experience -"Embers Fire", "Remembrance" and "Gothic". Nick was already bare-chested after the first song, but I think both Erwin and memanaged to get it on film (I'll know on Tuesday the 15th, butthat's beyond the ST NEWS deadline). Both Gregor and Aaron bangedtheir heads off for most of the concert, but especially Aaronseemed like a headbanging dynamo that perpetually charged itself.He spent the entire concert banging like mad. After three songs security kindly but determinedly guided usback into the regular crowd. I had no more photos to take. I onlyhad to find a spot somewhere not too much in front (to evade theterrifyingly big mosh - inferior only to the one at the 1993Dynamo Open Air, but there were 40 times less people present now- and make sure my camera stayed in one piece) and not too faraway either. I found two fellow "VIRUS" members banging theirhead off and playing air guitar at the edge of the giant mosh,and decided to join them. I spent the rest of the concert - "Joysof the Emptiness", "True Belief", "Mortals Watch the Day", "Pitythe Sadness", audience favourite "Shades of God" and a total of75 minutes of great metal - enjoying myself tremendously. By theend I could nearly wring the sweat out of my camera, and afterspending something like 45 minutes in a mosh-like queue to getback my coat about a dozen "VIRUS" members and me got back to ourregular bar. At that time the band was probably heading for theirnext tour date already, the next day's performance at Tilburg's"Noorderlicht".

And that's this issue collection of audience participationreports. More to be expected in the next issue, probably withsome stuff at Dynamo Open Air and, possibly Napalm Death atTivoli (with an interview?).

Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.